Sudden atraumatic bruising and petechiae - worried sick.

[moosemama]

Just waiting for it to be time to go to our emergency vet appointment, but thought I’d ask on here if anyone has any ideas, as I am driving myself round the twist worrying.

Woke this morning, everything seemed normal, dogs not behaving out of the ordinary at all, then at 10.00, when he rolled over whilst playing, I noticed my 5 year old male lurcher had what looked like a big (about 2 1/12 inch diameter) very dark purple, almost black bruise between his back legs. Checked him over, he had another 50p size one on his side and smaller petechia on the inside of his back leg. I didn’t panic until I saw the petechia, as he is accident prone and well known at the vets for ripping his paper thin skin as a result of brakes failure and general pointy dog mayhem, so I initally though he must have failed to brake and maybe slid into the old tree stump in the garden. Although that would have been odd for him as there are no cuts or tears anywhere. Then I saw the petechiae and realised it’s something systemic.

Called vets immediately, the earliest they could get me in was 2.15. Had to rush ds1 to a vital medical appointment, left other teen son dog-sitting, came home to find more petechiae appearing all over and pin-prick blood spots on his gums, plus his gums bled when I brushed them, which they don’t usually.

He isn’t behaving out of character, seems happy in himself, still flung fluffy toys all over the place and charged about like a looney when I arrived home. He’s usually a real wimp, so you know about it if he’s under the weather.

I daren’t google, as I have a pretty good idea of the scary stuff that might come up.

He hasn’t had access to anything poisonous that I am aware of. We don’t have any slug pellets or rodent poison on the property. Shed door is locked and we pretty much only have lawn outside. He didn’t get his walk yesterday because I was too ill to take him, so there wasn’t an opportunity for him to have ingested something elsewhere.

Has anyone had any experience of anything like this before? I am dreading them wanting to keep him in, as last time he was an inpatient he tried to escape and shredded his back legs, requiring multiple stitches.

Things are up and down here. He’s having some tremors, mainly whilst sleeping, but others seem to be triggered by stress or excitement and also some stomach issues. Having to feed him 6 meals a day so that his stomach isn’t left empty, because as soon as it is he’s sick bile. The up side of that is that he has gained a little of his weightloss back, although still very thin. I have learned that weightloss is common for sighthounds on prednisolone, as they metabolise it differently to other breeds.

He’s still very lethargic, but has had a couple of little plays before conking out again.

He was going through the night really well, but has gone backwards this weekend and the night my husband was away decided to get me up three times.

We have, unfortunately, had a bit of a scrap between the two of them. No obvious trigger, but basically he went for ddog2 as he walked past him. It was all bluff and noise, no damage and has only happened the once, after which he then slept for hours, so I’m wondering if he was just feeling particularly rough and tetchy and snapped. Fortunately ddog2 has excellent communication skills and knew to get out and stay out of ddog1’s way for the rest of the day. We’ve made sure they both have quiet bolt-holes so they can give each other space and they have been fine since, in fact I think ddog2 has been quite sweet with ddog1. He seems to know he’s poorly and gives him the odd nuzzle, which is completely new, as he’s always been very standoffish with him historically.

We’re back at the specialist vets on the 8th for his next set of bloods and all being well, will transfer back to our own vet after that.

Much love to you, ours get tetchy with each other when they aren't feeling well.

Hope all goes well tomorrow. X

Apologies, on the 8th

Sorry it's been as smooth as you would have hoped but sometimes things do take a slight downward tilt before heading back up & staying there. It's horrible when they have tremors - DDog has them sometimes, especially when she's got to that too hungry stage (for no apparent reason) and then doesn't want to eat. She'll sit / lie there shaking and looking sorry for herself which is horrible to see. But it may be with yours that it's the meds having a side effect.
Paws crossed & prayers offered

That should obviously read 'NOT been as smooth'...

Hope DDog is feeling a bit better again.

Sorry I haven’t been back to update. Life had been ever so slightly bonkers.

He’s had his second follow-up. Bloods were all good, but he’d been having pretty extreme tremors, getting us up in the night twice to go out for a wee again and had had two wetting accidents in the night. He was also spending every evening in a state of wild eyed stress and panting, with compulsive drinking. Vet suggested we drop the steroids down and monitor for four days. If no improvement they would then try some different meds. Fortunately on the fourth day he seemed to settle down and has been much better since.

He’s still a bit panty and stressy in the evening, which the vet think is to do with his own adrenal/cortisol pattern, but nowhere near as extreme and he’s much happier in himself. We’ve also been able to drop him down to four meals a day.

We’re going to be transferred to our own vet for future monitoring and monthly blood tests, as each appointment at the specialists is costing around £400.

Oh and the two dogs are fine with each other now, in fact if anything, they’ve been a bit more affectionate than usual.

Bless his paws. Steroids (and meds in general) can be a bugger for making pets need to wee. When DCat1 had an operation for urinary problems they gave him too high a dose and he ended up just lying on the spare bed in a large wet patch where he'd obviously gone in the night without getting up. Absolutely horrible to see him. But sorted fine when we reduced the dose and he's been fine (touch wood) ever since, off the meds and healthy.
Glad you're moving forward with him, and that they're both doing well together.
Paws crossed that you see a steady improvement from now on (and a reduction in fees!)

Not posted for a very long time, but thought I’d update as my boy is in relapse. Things started to go a bit wonky in September. Prednisolone dosage has been jiggled up and down a few times since then, we got him stable on 7.5 mg every other day for a while, but then his platelets started dropping.

I knew he wasn’t right, my husband felt the same, but vets wanted to take more blood and send off smears to the specialist lab to rule out clumping. We were then told that there was clumping and the lab was happy his platelet levels were ‘adequate’ at 80. I wasn’t happy, as he’d gone from 250 down to 80, dropping steadily over 4 months, but the specialist vets were saying they felt it was most likely down to in-house testing missing clumping and as long as it wasn’t below 50 he was ok, as 50 is the threshold for potential haemorrhage, so that’s when they start to be really worried.

Three weeks after we were told we were wrong, that he was fine and they weren’t worried, he started bruising. I told them he had been out of sorts, then a lot of bruising appeared over a 5 day period. I was told it would be down to fragile capillaries due to prolonged prednisolone intake. More bloods taken and sure enough platelets down to 27. Again the specialist blamed the sample and insisted a repeat set of smears be sent off as it could be down to a large clot or clumping. It took 4 days for me to get hold of the vets for the results only to be told - what was now a week after his initial reading of 27 - that the results was correct, he’s in relapse and we need to add in Cyclosporine urgently.

So, I’m picking up his first two week supply tomorrow and we have repeat bloods in a fortnight to see if it’s helped.

I am so cross that I wasn’t more pushy a month ago when I told them I knew something wasn’t right and wasn’t happy with declining platelets across 4 monthly blood tests. The specialist made me feel like I was making a fuss about nothing, I think he was annoyed that my vet had asked him to call me to discuss the results.

Not really sure why I’m posting, other than the fact I can’t settle and am worried sick about my poor boy and feel like I’ve let him down by not fighting harder sooner.

Please post. For one reason as it could help someone else in the same position. I have my fingers crossed for u. So let us know how u get on.

I have read the thread and I’m struck by how much you have done for both your dogs, not to mention other members of your household and I hope you are looking after you.

You have had the most excellent caring from your vet and the specialist whilst this is going on so I can absolutely see why you would have trusted their judgment. I don’t think you have let him down, you have fought for him at all times, and how much you care shines through your posts. You have just relied on professionals and that’s an entirely reasonable thing to do.

Best of luck to you and yours

Thankyou @Boristhecats and @Theoscargoesto. So sorry I haven’t been back, it’s been a nightmare few weeks, with my dad rushed into hospital with Sepsis and my son first dislocating his knee (another ambulance trip) then spraining his neck and now in relapse of his chronic condition. So things have been a bit full on.

Thank you so much for your kind words.

The good news is that whilst ridiculously expensive (£400 a fortnight! ) the new medication seems to be helping. After the first fortnight his platelets had risen to 71, which is out of the danger zone, but still too low. The bruising has completely stopped too, which is a huge relief. He’s into his second fortnight of them now, due for another set of bloods next week and if that works he’ll be weaned very slowly off the steroids and kept on the cyclosporine. We’ll be getting a prescription for it in future though, as I can get it from a reliable online pet pharmacy for half the cost of buying via the vet.

Side effects of the cyclosporine haven’t been too bad. He’s struggling with eating, only eating about a quarter of his meals then stopping and looking stressed. So I’ve gone back to several smaller meals every day, which makes it tricky timing his meds, as this new one has to be given 2 hours after eating, twice a day. One of the side effects is ‘hirsuitism’, which is interesting, as he’s lost such a lot of fur on the Prednisolone, but now it’s growing back in bizarre patches and all different textures, although he still has his trademark bald bum (typical Greyhound pattern bald thighs). Other than that he’s more tired than usual and very clingy, but generally happy in himself and still has little play sessions with his toys and the odd crazy moment, although a couple of minutes play will leave him exhausted and sleeping for hours.

My husband has been sleeping downstairs with him, as he needs to go out 1-2 times a night, but we’ve now invested in a baby-monitor so we can hear him from upstairs.

Ddog2 is doing ok. Had his check up at the vets last week and they’re very pleased with him for a 14 1/4 year old large breed dog. Other than arthritis in his back legs, for which he takes daily meds, he’s doing really well.